Lee's Resurgence
by MidnightJD1
Summary: Normally, people only have one chance at life. For Lee Everett however, that wasn't the case, as he now finds himself back where it all began. Aided with his knowledge of the past, he sets out to save the lives of as many people as possible. Though it may not be as easy as it seems as every action, also has a consequence. Both in the easy and the hard way. Good and Bad.
1. A Flashback Or A Warning?

**Greetings Fan Fiction Reader! It's MidnightJD back with another story on this site! This time, of The Walking Dead, preferably the Telltale version of The Walking Dead, not the show. Now, I'm actually a huge fan of a lot of stories that Telltale presents in their video games and they give such a huge diversity of genres. Three seasons of Walking Dead, Batman, Minecraft, Borderlands, etc. Each one tells a great story based on the audience that's actually playing it. It just so happens that first season of their version of The Walking Dead is my favorite, so here I am, though season 2 and New Frontier are almost just as good.**

 **This will probably be my only pre-authors note in this story since I ramble on enough with these already, don't want to make them too long. I think I'm getting better... no? Okay then.**

 ** _ENJOY!_**

If there had to be one sight that Lee Everett absolutely did not ever want to see, it was the sight of Clementine shedding tears over him. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to protect Clementine and hopefully find peace for her one day. Instead, the whole thing has been one disaster after another. He should have never let Clementine take those batteries. Never. Now they're both paying the price. Though which price was higher? Lee didn't know.

To think that he went to such great lengths protecting this little girl, one who existence wasn't even known to him five months prior, and yet it felt like he had known her his entire life. Clementine brought Lee some light in this fucked-up world, she brought him a joy he hadn't felt in a long time and now he was being taken away from her. To Lee, it wasn't fair, nothing was even remotely fair in this life anymore. He had dodged walker bites for four months pretty swiftly and the one time he got caught off-guard, the one time he didn't have his defense up, he got the smallest bite mark you'd ever see and now it was killing him.

Practically everyone Clementine ever cared about had died in just four months, her parents, Carley, Kenny, Duck, and now Lee. Lee was wondering why a nine year old deserved capitol punishment from fate itself, and it he could get his hands on fate, he'd stab it with a pitchfork like he did to Danny St. John. He had to admit though, if there was one positive to all this and Lee dreaded the thought itself, it was that he was the one bitten instead of Clem. She deserved to live much more than he did, he got 37 years in a non-walker world, while she only got 8 and a half. He was just hoping that one day, she'd be able to find a good place to stay that was peaceful and free of walkers because she sure as hell deserved it.

"This is so horrible..." She bawled out. "An-and now...you? PLEASE Lee...don't turn into one of them, just...anything but that...please don't turn in a walker!"

Inside Lee's mind, it was in overdrive with all different kinds of thoughts. " _That is one tone of voice I just wish I never could here. My heart, it hurts right now, even more than when I found my ex-wife...*sigh* There's only one thing left to do at this point."_

"I wish...I couldn't. But there's only one thing that you can do. You know that Clem."

She gets the horrible idea and replies. "I just...I...I-I don't know if I can."

Lee never wanted Clem to see him as one of those monsters so he gave the worst, but most honest answer he could think of. "You have to shoot me honey. There's no other way and I'm not letting you see me as one of those monsters."

She shakes her head in denial. "Lee noooo...I can't. I just can't."

Lee decided to have a small backstory with her. "Remember when Katjaa took Duck into the forest? I eventually had to be the one to put him down and make sure he didn't turn. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I'm so sorry you're in that position now. I'd do anything to prevent this."

"It's so simple, all you have to do, is point the gun at me, close your eyes and just be thankful you'll never see turn into one of them. I know it's hard, but you can do this, I know you can." His voice was hoarse at this point, barely making it out in whispers. He was trying his best to tell her that this wasn't all bad, even though it mostly was.

She started to sob again. "O-Okay Lee...I can do this...I can, you told me I can." Her face was just downright distraught at this point. Lee hated doing this to her, but there was no other choice.

"Good girl." Praising her though did little in this situation. But Lee figured that maybe giving her some advice could help her survive. "Find Omid and Christa Clem. They're outside of town...by the train...you remember where it is, don't you?"

"Yes." She replies and Lee nods in content.

"Good. They'll take real good care of you. I can promise that." From the short time Lee knew of Christa and Omid, he could tell that they were good people and that they were trustworthy. Plus it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that they had a kid of their own along the way, Clem would be a great big sister.

Tears were flowing down her cheeks at this point, but he had to push on. "Clem...You need to keep that hair short. It's safer that way."

"I will Lee...I'll cut it myself. No walker will ever grab me."

"Good. Good...And also..." Lee was slowly losing a fighting battle to stay conscious and more and more energy drained from his body. Black dots were starting to appear in his vision.

"What?" Lee heard. "What is it?"

"I..." The African-American man was contemplating whether what he was thinking would either relieve her or make her more distraught. "Come...here Clem. One last hug." He was barely managing out words at this point as everything he felt was slowly dying. She launched herself at the bitten man before he even finished his sentence, letting everything out, her emotions, her pain, all the hard memories she's seen over the last four months were pouring down onto Lee's left shoulder. It was too bad that he couldn't even feel her tears, or ever her at this point. It seems as though he's become fully paralyzed and there wasn't anything he could do about it anymore other than say his last soothing words to the young lady before she would do the unspeakable.

It was just something Lee felt he needed to say, because it entirely true, 100%. "I...love you Clem. You're like the daughter I never had and I wouldn't trade you for anything...I'll...miss you."

Clementine started wailing even harder into his shoulder now and he hated that she was feeling this way, but he felt he just had to tell her though. Especially after everything they've been through, it was the least he could do.

She cried for another minute before eventually composing herself enough to say the thing that Lee was hoping for. "I love you too Lee. You were a g-g-great surrogate father...I'll miss you too." Tears continued to fall down her cheeks as she stood up and aimed the gun.

By now, Lee was just spent. He felt as though on a scale between 0-100, he was at 0.001 percent, but he mustered up what energy he had left and took one last glance and sent a weak smile to her, letting her know that all this wasn't her fault, that he would never blame her and that it was alright. It didn't need to be spoken, but Lee knew that Clem knew that he would be watching down over her and would be proud of the young woman she would become.

His energy was now depleted completely so he did the only thing he could do now and just closed his eyes, wait for the inevitable and just let that be it. All that was left was the quiet sobs that Clementine was making. Lee felt her hesitate, hoping for some kind of miracle to happen, but both knew it was wishful thinking.

Clementine got enough courage to raise the weapon and the very last thing Lee would ever hear was one last sob and a gunshot aimed for his head.

 _ **BAM!**_

Nobody ever knew it, but Lee was a good Christian man. He always believed that there was a life after Earth, a life, after life. He chose the Christian lifestyle and way, despite some of his actions. He always prayed when no one was around, it gave him a sense of peace and just a way out of the world, even if it was just for a few minutes. So when Lee only saw darkness after he heard the gunshot, he figured it wasn't enough to move on to something more hopeful.

Just pure darkness. In all honesty, he thought this was a clever way of saying that _"Hey, you're in Hell now, enjoy the rest of your days in eternal darkness."_ It probably wasn't the most creative hell one could think of, but it would bring those to complete insanity after a while. No one around, no one to talk to, nothing to hear, smell, taste or feel, just seeing an endless amount of black. Yet Lee could still hear his own thoughts.

 _"Guess this is Hell. *sigh* I always presumed that Hell would be a place with lots of orange, red and yellow with a ton of fire everywhere. Apparently I was wrong, it's just endless darkness. Probably a more convenient way to break those poor souls down into complete madness. I mean all I can do right now is just think to myself. Eventually all my thoughts will run out and I'll start talking to myself in various ways. Better just think of nothing for a while."_

The sea of black was already getting to the poor man and it would have continued if Lee didn't see a small light growing bigger.

 _"What the hell?"_ Was all of Lee's thoughts.

Eventually the light became so bright that any darkness completely vanished and was replaced by its opposite color. Lee was thinking that maybe this wasn't hell, maybe he actually got to the gates of heaven or something, he didn't know. He just waited as that was the only he could do before the light eventually died down a bit and showed a picture that completely shocked Lee.

 _"Clem?"_

It seemed as though whatever he was watching was a few months into the future as it shows Clementine with Omid and Christa, only Christa is showing a lot more stomach than what she used to. "You cannot be serious Omid." He saw that they entered some kind of conversation and since there was nothing else to do, he just listened. He just hoped this wasn't snooping in anyway.

"I am."

"We are NOT doing that."

"Why not?"

"Because!"

"Come on Christa, what's wrong with "Omid"?"

"We're not calling our baby Omid, one of you is enough. Clementine, a little help here?"

"How about Omid the Second?"

"No."

"Okay then, Omid Junior."

"No!"

Clementine finally spoke her first words. "What if it's a girl?"

Omid replied. "Then we name her Christa."

Christa spoke her two cents about the idea. "But I'm Christa, I don't want to call her Christa, that's just confusing."

Lee thought this was just too comedic. He knew the presumably married couple were hiding a secret ever since he first met them and he figured Christa was pregnant because it made the most sense, this entire conversation alone proved that, minus the fact Christa looked 7-8 months in.

Since he had nothing better to do, he continued watching the mysterious movie play and it got dark really fast. What started out as just another area searching for supplies turned into a tragedy as a girl entered the girls' restroom doing the exact same thing they were doing, only she had an easy trigger when she took Clementine's gun and shot Omid right in the chest when he tried to sneak up on her and take the gun away.

Christa quickly ran in quickly after and a look of devastation was plastered right on her face as she took no remorse and fired a shot from her rifle into the abdomen of the one who murdered her husband.

 _"Goddamn."_ Were Lee's only thoughts. He was now wondering why on Earth he was seeing this. This wasn't anything hopeful or inspiring, if anything, it was demeaning to how things were nowadays. How easy it was to just...kill someone, was mind-boggling to Lee, on both ends of the situation. Even now, he still feels regret to all those whom he had killed. Even the bandits.

His vision faded to black again before another scene made itself appear and Lee could definitely tell the one he considered his daughter was definitely older, at least by a year or two. Her facial features matured ever so slightly and she had grown a good 6 inches or so. The setting around her and Christa looked to be somewhere in a forest, similar to the events he had just witnessed, only deeper into said forest.

From that point on, event upon event just kept flashing into Lee's point-of-view, from getting bit by a dog on the arm, to finding a new group, to actually finding Kenny again. Lee became perplexed at that one. He figured the poor old man was dead from being surrounded by walkers in that alleyway, but apparently not.

The dead man was observing every scene that was flying his way and wondered why he was watching all of this and who was sending it his way. Of course, he was glad he was being a guardian angel of sorts to Clementine, despite how corny that sounds. But he had to wonder if this served any purpose or if it was just there to watch over whom he considered his own daughter.

As he was watching on, he almost instantly noticed that the world was a lot worse than what it was when he was alive. Death was everywhere, betrayal was so easy for people to do, and how the more Lee kept watching on, the more his little sweetpea wasn't so sweet anymore. Sure, she had AJ and viewed him as his own mother which left Lee a bit flabbergasted, but everybody she ever met just got killed and figured that's why she's kept her distance from everyone for a number of years. She feels it's her fault that the people she meets end up dying in one way or another and he can see that. He just wishes he could do something about.

After some time passes however and Clem finally meets a group that isn't dysfunctional and actually cares for one another, she begins to stick around more and becomes close to each member of the little family she finds. Especially this Gabriel person. Lee smirked and knew exactly what was going on because he was in a similar situation when he was her age. Ah young love.

Clementine's ultimate goal though is to find AJ after she loses him so she manages to get her hair cut from Javi and promised him, Gabe and Kate that she'll come back and when she does, she'll have her little goofball. Upon said statement, Lee sees she says her goodbyes and walks into the unknown. After that, the visions once again stopped showing and all he saw was black.

From what he saw of what appeared to be a few years into the future, Lee was very proud of the young woman his sweetpea was becoming. She definitely had her rough patches, though who doesn't in a world like that, but she did the right thing the whole way, she never killed unless she had to, always cared for others that were close to her and was prepared to be a dedicated mom to AJ. It may sound absurd in a normal world, but that world wasn't normal anymore. Lee figured Clementine definitely had some good karma coming her way.

His thoughts were cut short though when he saw the white light starting to appear again and he wondered what he would see this time. What he saw was something that he thought he would never see again.


	2. Is This Really Happening?

"Well, I reckon you didn't do it then."

Lee's thoughts were all over the place. _'Is this where I think it is? There's no way. How? I was...watching a movie of which I assume was the future, now I'm here? Back where this all...started.'_ For good measure, Lee gave a good tug at the handcuffs that were holding him and sure enough, he felt a slight pinch on his wrists confirming his suspicions.

He was back to the day the world has gone to hell.

Lee then remembered what the officer said and just gave a reply. "You know what they say about reckoning." He didn't know, he just spewed out the first thought that came to his mind.

"Ha, I don't, but I reckon it's a lot like assumin'."

"Yeah something like that." Lee honestly was not in the mood for this guy, he frankly didn't even know his name so he didn't give a damn about him, but he decided to continue.

"You know I've driven a bunch of fellars down to this prison. Lord knows how many, usually's about now I get the, I didn't do it."

Lee had nothing better to do until the walker in the road appeared so he asked, "Every time?"

The officer in the front nods, " _EVERY_ time." Emphasis on the every.

The conversation carried on for another couple of minutes, from talking about the case, to talking about Lee's old job, to talking about old nutcases this officer had driven to the prison in the past. In all honesty, Lee couldn't care less about any of these topics as they were a thing of the past and just kept his mouth shut and focused on his thoughts.

 _'This is real. I'm actually back to the day this all started. That means...oh my god. Clementine! This has to be a second chance of sorts. Why I'm sent back here, I don't know, but I have to figure this out. God sent me here, now I have to make the most of it. If what I saw in the future is true, that means I hold the knowledge of future events and can save countless lives...including my own.'_

Lee looked up and saw the walker in front of the car, _'Here we go.'_ and just kept his mouth shut. As the cop was retelling some of his stories that Lee didn't even pay attention to, the _officer_ didn't pay attention to the road and hit the walker dead on and spun right off the road in to the trenches below which held the dastardly forest.

Lee was prepared this time and held himself as tight as could onto the car door. He did pretty well for himself until he got knocked unconscious once again. He began fading in and out like last time and _just_ like last time, he heard the cop screaming first in fear then in agony as he could hear the walkers chewing out the man's insides.

When the Macon native came to, he immediately checked his leg and saw it wasn't bleeding like it was last time and that no pain emanated from the area. He remembered this part very well so he kicked out the glass to the back door of the cop car, heaved himself out of said car and made sure to land on his feet this time. _'So far so good.'_

Lee had to play this right, he had a couple of options here, he knew the now dead officer would be springing back to life soon so he could either A. Play it out like he did last time, or B. do it the easy way and take care of him in a much more quiet way.

The Georgia man chose the obviously choice and made sure to kick the officer's head in before he returned from the dead so he wouldn't have to shoot him. After that was taken care of, he crouched down to pick up the keys from the officer's person and unlocked himself from the only thing that once held his freedom. He walked over to the shotgun that was lying on the floor and picked that and the shotgun-shell up and loaded it into the gun. He wanted to take this as it was a perfectly good shotgun and might come in handy later down the road.

Once secured, he began his way up the path to where he would hopefully find his sweetpea once again. He noticed that compared to last time, this path wasn't actually as long as he thought it was, only about 15-20 steps as most. He wondered when it got shorter. After he made it to the gate stealthily, doing his best to avoid alerting all the nearby walkers, he threw the shotgun over the fence and heaved himself up and over the fence as well.

Once he landed and picked up his shotgun again, he looked up and thought about yelling for Clementine but had second thoughts. _'There's no telling if Clementine kept her memories as well. I know for sure she's up there, but it would be weird if I just called her by her name when I've never actually... met her before at this point-in-time... Man, time-travel is so confusing.'_

The smartest choice was to let the events play out like last time and see where they would be heading. The best decision was to retrace his steps. How could he forget the day he met Clementine? It was an alarming but stable memory of his.

He began knocking on the back porch sliding glass door, "Hello! Anybody home? I need a little help." He decides to open said door, "Coming in. Don't shoot okay?"

After he walks in and shuts the door, Lee takes a good look at his surroundings and it reminds him or just how eerie this place really is. Lights off, TV screen turned to blue, the blood everywhere and those haunting messages that he did not want to replay ever again.

He needed to get Clementine out of the treehouse without scaring her directly. Sandra in her zombified form would be coming sooner or later, but that would be when he actually talked to his sweetpea. And the only way to draw it out was...

"*sigh* Shit." He dreaded the idea of listening to those voicemails again, it freaked him out last time, but he had no choice so he pressed the voicemail button and let each message play out.

"Three new messages. Message one. Left at, five-forty-three P.M."

"Hey Sandra, this is Diana. We're still in Savannah. Ed had a little 'incident' with some crazy guy near the hotel, so we had to get him, back to the ER and have it checked out. Anyway, he's not feeling well enough to drive back tonight so we're staying an extra day. Thanks so much for looking after Clementine and I promise, we'll be back in time before your spring break!"

It seemed so innocent at the time, before when he first heard that message, Lee had zero clue what could have happened to Clem's father. Now, he had a pretty good idea.

"Message two. Left at, eleven-nine-teen P.M."

"Oh my god, finally! I don't know if you've tried to reach us; all the calls are getting dropped. They're not letting us leave and aren't telling us anything about Atlanta. Please, please, just leave the city and take Clementine with you back to Marietta. I've got to get back to the hospital. Please let me know that you're safe."

Each message was getting harder and harder for Lee to listen to and he still had one more before this would end. He had grabbed the walkie-talkie by that time and was just waiting for her to speak through it.

"Message three. Left at, six-fifty-one A.M."

"Clementine? Baby, if you can hear this, call the police. That's 9-1-1. We love you... we love you... we love y-"

 _'Oh boy.'_ Were Lee's only thoughts as he picked up a family picture and gave it a good look. _'That might have been even more difficult to listen to this time.'_

"Daddy?" Lee's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

He picked up the walkie-talkie he grabbed earlier and responded. "Hello?"

"You need to be quiet." Was what came from the other end.

He figured he'd continue how he remembered it. "Who is this?"

"I'm Clementine. This is my house."

"Hi Clementine, I'm Lee."

"You're not my daddy."

"No, I'm not." He finished with a sorrowful expression. He knew it was too good to be true.

He looked around a little more before asking. "How old are you Clementine?"

"I'm Eight years old."

"And you're all alone?"

"Yes, I don't know where anybody is. How old are you?"

"I'm thirty-seven."

"Ok."

"Where could your parents be right now?"

"They took a trip down to Savannah I think, where the boats are. They left me with Sandra, my babysitter."

Lee noticed the dialogue was slightly different now, but still the same general concept.

Last time, Lee asked her where she was and thinking about that question now, it just felt odd to him so he went with the better alternative. "Are you safe?"

"I'm completely safe in my treehouse outside. They haven't been able to get in."

"That's clever Clementine, as far as I know, they can't climb."

"Thank you Lee!" She seemed happy with the praise. "See? Can you see me? I can see you through the window!"

The little eight-year-old opened her door to her treehouse and waved. Lee waved back. Inside his mind, _'Cue walker Sandra.'_

"GAH!"

With four months of walker-killing experience, Lee was able to shake off the walker with relative ease. He knew Clementine would offer him a hammer so he jumped over the pool of blood and made his way to the door where she was standing with a hammer in her hands. She was shaking when he opened the door so he gently took the hammer and turned around the walker was about 3 feet away from him so with a tactic he got from Clementine, he kicked out the walker's legs and began bashing its brain in with said hammer.

After about five consecutive hits, the walker lay limp with blood oozing out from inside of its head. Since Lee was used to killing walkers, he relapsed fairly quickly and looked down at Clementine, but she had a confused look on her face which was different from the nervous and it looked like she was thinking about something. So he just stayed quiet.

After a minute, the young girl looked up and asked, "You seem familiar, do I know you?"

Lee kept a poker face on, but inside, it was like somebody was sounding the alarms. If Clementine could remember her past, that would make things easier and the whole situation would be better to cope with. However, he needed to answer. "To my knowledge, I don't think so. I never really was around this area much, plus I'm from Macon, which is about an hour away from here." _'Get your shit together Lee. Odds of her actually remembering you are next to impossible. But if she did...no, I'm getting my hopes up, I just have to protect her and everybody else a lot better this time.'_

"Are you okay?" He heard from below. He noticed his sweetpea had a look of concern on her, probably because of his silence so he replied. "Yeah, I'm alright...just this whole situation is scary. You know?"

"I agree. I hope the monsters don't get to us."

"Look, I don't know what happened or why, but I'll look after you until we can find your parents. Family is important...I know that all too well."

She seemed to understand and nodded. "What should we do now?"

Lee thought for a moment, _'couldn't hurt to ask if she knew if her family had any weapons. We'll definitely need them.'_ "Do you happen to know if one of your parents had a weapon of any kind? It could help us. I have my shotgun, but that's way too loud, plus I only have one shell left. Won't be much use after so, until I get more."

She went into her thoughts for a second before nodding. "I remember my dad had a pistol he liked to keep away in case of an emergency, plus he was a fan of swords, so he always kept at least one around."

"Good. Good, those can help protect us. Is it alright if I use them?" He wanted to show he was humble and wouldn't take things without one's permission so he asked that question. The little girl nodded and led him to said weapons upstairs. Clementine found the pistol and gave it to the older man.

Upon inspection, Lee noticed this this was a Springfield Armory 1911a1, it had a black finish with a wooden handle. Who's to say he only had knowledge in history, he knew his way around guns too.

"Thank you Clementine. This will help keep both of us safe for the time being. And I promise, I'll take good care of it." He explained as he crouched down to meet her at eye level.

Clementine seemed happy with his words and nodded. She also pointed to the wall behind him and he noticed a silver katana with a blue grip for a handle hanging on the wall. This was a completely custom hand made katana as along the blade had what looked to be black Japanese lettering that Lee couldn't understand, that along with the fact that this thing looked to be sharper than your average katana made Lee believe that whoever Clementine's father was, took pride in making sure this thing was in pristine condition and a self-defense weapon if necessary. Lee also noticed a maintenance kit and a brown sheath so he put the katana in there and equipped it to his person.

After both weapons were equipped, Lee crouched down to Clementine's level, "You okay trusting me with these?"

The little girl nodded. "Yes." Though her voice sounded almost worried.

"What's the matter?"

"I just don't know if my dad would be alright with letting you use them. Plus what if they come home? I don't really want to stay here another night, but I don't want to leave either." Confliction was controlling her mind at the moment so Lee put her at ease.

"I won't leave you alone okay? We'll try to stay close that's also safe. Is that a good plan?" Lee asked. She seemed to think about it for a minute before smiling and nodding. Agreement was between them.

As they walked out of the house, they started walking towards the left side towards the main gate. As they were walking, Lee noticed that Clementine looked somewhat...happy. He was glad she didn't seem conflicted anymore and that he can still put her at ease. As he opened the gates, he noticed Shawn and his buddy, who he couldn't remember the name of at the moment.

He overheard. "Oh mannn." "We ain't neva gettin home at this rate...And it's hot dish night."

Lee decided to be direct with his approach like last time. "HEY MAN!"

"Woah! DON'T EAT US!"

"We're not gonna hurt you." Lee put his hands up a bit to ease them.

"Phew, for a second there I thought you and the little one were _BOTH_ gonna give us the chomp." Shawn seemed at ease for now, but he kept his voice down to not alert anything.

Lee did the same with his voice. "We just need help man." Lee wanted to get out of here as soon as possible because if he didn't, those walkers were gonna sneak up on them and then this would all be for nothing.

"Are you trying to get out of here? Because you should be. Those things are all OVER the damn place. I haven't anything as gnarly as this neighborhood since downtown Atlanta, fifteen miles back." He pointed to the downtown area as he explained what he'd seen. He continued. "I'm Shawn, Shawn Greene."

"Nice to meet you. My name's Lee, this is Clementine."

The other guy that Lee didn't remember the name to crouched down to Clem's level, "I'm Chet."

 _'So Chet was his name. Good to know.'_ Were Lee's thoughts.

Shawn grew serious. "We shouldn't be out in the open like this. How about you help us clear the way and we'll take you and your daughter out of here, down to my family's farm. It should be safer there."

He replied upfront and with honesty. "I'm not her dad. I'm just some guy who found her alone. I was in a wreck up on the freeway back there." He pointed back to where he crashed just a few minutes prior. "I hit one of those things you've been hearing about. Car was totaled, but I still have my life and this shotgun for protection." He turned to show his shotgun on his back.

Shawn's eyes were widening by the word. "Wow, that must have been heavy. Let's get going though, staying put for too long is a mistake."

Lee looked down to Clementine, "What do you want to do?"

She looks conflicted again. "I..." As she looks over to her house.

She got cut off though by Chet. "Them monsters comin'! We gotta go now!"

Shawn put his hands on the front of the car and Lee was right behind him to push it out of the way. With his leg uninjured, it was a lot easier pushing it out of the way. Once the road was cleared, Chet hopped into the bed of the truck while Shawn, Clem and Lee got into the cab. As they sped off, Shawn mentioned, "For just "some guy," you seemed to have saved a number of lives today."

Now that Lee finally had some respite from all the madness that he was thrown in, he actually had about two hours to think about this whole thing. His physical demeanor was pretty calm throughout the drive to the farm, but his mind was in total overdrive. His thoughts were everywhere, from why he was sent back to this date, to how he was _actually_ alive again. This is stuff you only hear about in movies and games.

He had to come up with a plan though, things finally started to slow down for a change, but he knew that wouldn't last long. Shawn's death plagued not only Lee's mind, but also his friend Kenny, as well as Duck if he remembered correctly. That guilt from Kenny was what Lee believed to drive him to the point of almost being a broken man at the point of no return. As he saw from those visions or flashbacks or whatever the hell they were, he actually seemed happy once he got his life back together.

Lee was going to try and prevent all that from happening, with the exception of hopefully keeping Kenny sane and as happy as Lee could. His thoughts began to drift to Clementine, or more specifically, future Clementine. If what he saw was true, than this little girl beside him was so much more tough and strong-willed than he _ever_ was. The things she had seen and done would drive anybody crazy, but not her. She kept her head throughout the entire situation, despite the calamity her life had become in those five to six years.

As time passed, his mind was going through different scenarios on what could happen if he changed the timeline up. He knew and believed in the butterfly effect, about how one small change in anything could lead to an entirely different future for everyone. Lee knew, that whatever he did, would have consequences. Now whether those consequences be good or bad, that remains unknown. All he knew was just one timeline of how events could go, but any small change, from saving a life, to choosing a different path in how he worked, would change everybody's perspective on him in one way or another. There was an infinite amount of possibilities that could happen, but he knew that risk.

It was a scary thought, not knowing the unknown. But he believed that with his knowledge, he could make a change and hopefully keep everyone he knew and loved alive for as long as possible. Especially Clementine.


	3. Realization at the Farm

By the time they arrived to the farm, it was already nightfall; according to Lee's watch, a little past 8:00 PM. The majority of the ride was quiet, with the occasional small talk here and there about if things will get better or how the world will change if they don't.

To be honest though, Lee still had zero clue about how to approach the situation and couldn't figure out if this was a blessing or a curse. Or both. Everyone he once knew was alive right now, doing who knows what, but alive. Lee made a promise to himself to save as many lives as possible, including the ones he didn't interact with much. Lee had a very good memory, hence why he was a teacher, so he knew every possible life he could save, including the ones he had seen in the events past his time.

Shawn had pulled up to the farm by now and everyone was now getting outside of said truck as Chet mentioned, "Hey Shawn, I'm gonna run on home, momma's gonna be in a snit."

"No sweat man! I'll catch you tomorrow night." That line seemed to ominous and scary to Lee now. Last time, Shawn didn't even see the afternoon of tomorrow, he was going to prevent that this time around though.

Chet turned to the duo, "It was, nice to meet cha both." And with this, he walked off to wherever his home was.

Around the same time, an elderly man in green overalls walked out of the house. "Thank God you're okay."

"I was worried it'd be bad here too." Shawn explained as he embraced his father.

"Been quiet as usual the past couple days." Hershel did the same. "Ol' Breckon down the way thinks his mare's gone lame, but that ain't nothing new."

"I wouldn't have made it back without Chet, or these two here." Last time, Shawn didn't mention himself or Clementine so that was interesting so say the least.

"Well, I'm glad you took him with you then. So you've brought a couple guests."

Lee decided to speak for the first time, "Your boy is a life-saver."

Hershel nods, "Glad he could be of help to somebody. So it's just you and your daughter then?"

Shawn spoke up once again. "She's not his daughter, he's...well, just, some guy who found her alone."

Hershel crouched down to meet Clem's eye level, "Honey, do you know this man?"

Last time, she spoke uncertainly, but now she spoke with confidence. "I do, he's Lee." It looked like a smile was adorning her face as well. Lee took note.

Hershel nods once again. "Okay then." He turned to the tall African-American. "So your name's Lee then, nice to meet you Lee, I'm Hershel Greene." He walks up and offers a firm handshake with which Lee reciprocates.

"Shawn, can you run on in and check on your sisters for me?" The young man nods and walks in.

He turns back. "So what's your story Lee? I'm gonna need to know since you'll be staying on my farm for the night."

Lee pondered for a moment, but decided against telling Hershel that he had killed a man. Just didn't seem like the right time. "I was originally from Macon, though I came up to Athens to become a history professor up at UGA. Wasn't anything extraordinary, but I did love teaching. I was trying to head back to Macon earlier today when I ended up hitting one of things you've been hearing about. On the road. The car spiraled out of control and landed in a ditch. Nothing but a couple bruises and I thank my seatbelt for that. I walked until I found a residential neighborhood, which is where I met Clementine."

"Hmm. Your story adds up, but that doesn't explain why you brought her with you."

Lee felt like he got backed into a corner and needed to think fast. "I tried asking for some help in her house, but nobody was home. I heard an answering machine and the voicemails on there were her parents. It sounded like they didn't make it, so I felt a responsibility to keep her safe. No little girl deserves to die at the hands of the undead. I wasn't going to let that happen."

Hershel was impressed and seemed to buy it. "I would've done the same thing, had I found her. Hell, anybody would've if they had a heart. You just be sure that nothing happens to her, otherwise we'll have a serious problem." Hershel's face was neutral the entire time.

He wasn't finished though. "I'm gonna need to possess those weapons you have. Just for tonight, and then you can have them back in the morning. You seem like good people, but you can never too sure. Will you?" He finished with a stern look on his face.

Lee was figuring out real quick that even the small things change, but he wouldn't disagree with Hershel, he knew he was a good man. "Sure. If it shows good faith." He said as he relinquished his shotgun, pistol and katana.

"Thank you." Hershel complimented. "Like I said, you'll get them back in the morning, don't you worry."

And with that, Hershel walked away as Lee noticed him and Shawn having a discussion, most likely about reinforcing the fence around the farm. That was Lee's cue to walk into the barn where he found that Clementine already found the same spot as last time. Though she was already asleep. _'Seems she was tired.'_ Lee figured so he sat down onto the spot next to Clementine and tried to get some shut-eye.

...

However, a few hours into the night, he was woken up by Clementine, who sounded distressed so he took a peak and realized she was probably having a bad dream. He didn't remember this part, though he tried his best to calm her down. He sat up and placed a hand on her little shoulder and muttered quietly. "It's okay Clementine, you're safe, nothing's gonna hurt you."

It seemed to ease her a bit, though she was still slightly thrashing about and muttering something Lee couldn't quite understand. It all ended however when she sat up, eyes wide and yelled out "AJ!"

Lee remembered exactly who AJ was. When he turned to Clem, he saw that she was looking around like she confused before her eyes finally turned widened when she saw who was sitting next to her. "Lee?!" She sounded flabbergasted.

Lee didn't know to approach this situation, she said his name like she hadn't seen him in forever. Could it be true? Did she remember? He had to know. He decided to test the waters a bit. "AJ isn't here Clementine, he isn't even born yet. "

"Lee!" Clementine launched herself at Lee and when she felt content, she began shedding silent tears as the little girl cried into his shirt.

Lee didn't want to wake the others in the barn so he led them outside where the only light he saw was coming from the moon and the one street light in front of the house. He just let Clem cry into his shirt.

Clementine couldn't understand it, she was on her quest to get AJ back, she goes to sleep and suddenly, wakes up to find Lee watching her in the barn. She launched herself at him to confirm this wasn't a dream of any kind and when she felt contact, it was like all her pain had washed away. She continued crying for another few minutes before she looked up to him and asked, "Please tell me this is real, am I really seeing you again?"

Lee replied with a smile, "I could be asking the same thing. So you remember?"

Clementine nodded. "I remember everything, having to shoot you, knowing that it was my fault you got bitten. But how is this possible? You're here, but I watched you die!"

Lee was going to be as honest as he could. "I don't know how it's possible, but we've been sent back in time Clem. Back to when all this started. I was just as surprised as you are. But what I can say is that I'm proud of the young woman you're becoming, raising AJ and all." He said with a warm smile.

She knew what he was talking about, but didn't know how. "How do you know that I was raising AJ? You couldn't have, you were..." She couldn't finish that sentence.

"You don't have to finish that. After you shot me, a series of events began playing through my vision. I was watching you Clem, every step of the way. It started when Omid died and went all the way up until the day you left Richmond I believe. You might not have known it, but I've always been with you Clementine, I was watching over you from above. As cheesy as that sounds."

The little girl giggled at that, but continued. "That's amazing! I just can't believe you're alive. You can't leave me this time, you can't!" She was pleading as she hadn't let go of Lee yet.

"I won't die this time sweet pea, I can't die, not when so much is riding on my, and now your shoulders. I promise, I will protect you and everyone else the best I can."

That seemed to put Clementine at ease and now just stood there, still not letting go when she asked. "Where and when are we?"

"We're at Hershel's farm, the place Shawn Greene died. Remember?"

"I remember, it was so sad seeing that. Wait..."

Clementine backed out of the embrace and looked down at herself and complained. "I knew something was different, I'm back to the time I'm eight, aren't I?" She pouted at this.

Lee let out a laugh at her bickering, she still had her childish nature. "Yes, you are eight. That's okay though, it gives some more time to be a kid. I felt you grew up too fast, considering you were basically AJ's mother."

"I liked being AJ's mom. It felt odd, but nice. He was...special, but...he's not alive yet. That means I'll have to wait to get him back." She sounded depressed saying this.

Lee tried to reason with the little girl, "Hey, AJ might not be around yet, but I'm here. I saw you looking at that picture of me everyday, wishing I could be there. Now I am there, you'll get AJ back sweet pea, don't worry about that."

That seemed to put her at ease as she nodded. "Okay."

Lee yawned and mentioned that it was time to sleep so the pair went back into the barn and tried to get a peaceful night sleep and they did, both with huge smiles on their faces.

...

"Hey, get up." The two of them heard.

Lee yawned and started to sit up a bit, Clementine was on her feet by then and mentioned to no one in particular, "Ugh, I'm itchy."

"Well, you slept in a barn little lady, lucky you don't have spiders in your hair." The Floridian joked.

Clementine raised an eyebrow as she looked up as her hair and scratched a particular itchy spot and shrugged. "But I bet your Daddy scared them all away huh?"

As much as Lee hated to say it, it was true. "I'm uhh, not her dad. Name's Lee."

"I'm Kenny."

A young boy ran up to the barn doors. "Dad, we're gonna build a fence, there's a tractor and everything!" As quick as he ran up, he was out just as fast.

Kenny turned back to them, "We better get going, or we won't hear the end of it."

As the three walked out of the barn, Kenny started explaining, "That's my boy, Ken Junior, we call him Duck though."

Before Lee could think of a reply, Clementine just asked, "Duck?"

Kenny nodded, "Yeah, nothing bothers him, like water off a Duck's back, you know?"

"That's a good trait to have lately." Were Lee's two cents.

"I agree with that, though frankly, I think it's because he's as dumb as a bag of hammers." The fisher chuckled at that one as his son spoke out, "DAAAD!"

"But, he makes up for it with enthusiasm."

Lee and Clementine now noticed Kenny, Katjaa and Duck all within the same vicinity of each other and that brought a wave of nostalgia to them. Katjaa was such a nice woman and always tried to keep her morals even in the worst of times and Duck was...an adventure in himself. Kenny turned back to them and stated, "The word is, you were on your way to Macon."

Lee always wondered how he knew that, whether he was eavesdropping or Hershel told him, he didn't exactly know, but still explained his plans anyway. "Yeah, I was hoping to find my family there."

"Family is important, I should know." He says with a smile. "Macon is on the way down to Fort Lauderdale and personally I'd appreciate the company of a guy who can, knock a couple of heads together if he has to."

Lee knew Kenny was a good guy so he agreed. "Sure, why not? It'll be a good way to help each other out."

"It's a plan then." Kenny turns to his family. "Honey, Duck, this is Lee and uh, what's the girl's name again?"

"Clementine."

"Clementine."

Katjaa turns to the young lady, "That is a very pretty name."

Clementine just smiles and says "Thank you."

Right on cue, Shawn walks out of the house and up to the group. "Well, we should get to work, we've all seen what those things can do out there so the faster we get this fence up, the better."

Duck seems happy, "I want to build a fence."

"Yeah? Well I need a good foreman, you can sit on the tractor and yell at me, whenever I take a water break."

Lee decides it's time to intervene. "Hey Shawn, um, do you really think it's the best idea to have Duck sitting on the tractor? Can't those things start up unintentionally if mishandled? In my opinion, it'd be best to have him as a lookout as opposed to just a foreman."

Shawn thought about this for a minute and replied. "Yeah, You make a good point actually. For all we know, those things can be a lot closer than I originally thought. Duck, instead of sitting on the tractor, you'll be up in the tree keeping a lookout for any of those monsters. Can't be playing around anymore so stay focused on that task at hand."

It seemed to deject Duck a bit, but he agreed nonetheless. Katjaa, being the overprotective mother she, was going with Duck to make sure he didn't fall out of the tree and to keep him focused. With everybody agreeing, they all went to do their own thing, Duck managing his scout position with Katjaa worried about him, Kenny working on the truck and Shawn working on the fence. That left Lee and Clementine to do what they wanted.

Lee and Clementine decided to have a talk in a more secluded area of the farm to discuss more about their situation. Clementine spoke up first, "It's kinda weird having the mindset of a teenager inside a child's body. I'm don't feel as strong or fast as I used to be."

Lee nodded, "That may be true, but we have a second chance to make things right and keep people we used to know alive. You'll be just as, if not more important to saving those lives than I am."

Clementine didn't seem convinced. "How so? You can have authority over people. I never did, it took a lot for people to take me serious, especially with the second group I found."

"That's not fair and you know it, yeah you may be small, but you have so much more bravery and integrity than everyone you've come across. You're a natural leader, I saw it when you were with those other groups."

She seemed to ponder Lee words, "You think?"

"I know. if you have an idea or a way to go about things, speak out about it. You're a sharp kid, I can only imagine how you'll be when you're my age."

"Yeah, I guess. I'm just glad you saved Shawn though."

"Me too sweet pea. God knows what happened around this place after we left. Do you remembered what happened at the drug store?" Lee questioned.

The young girl nodded and said, "I remember. Doug got pulled out of the window and was never seen again. You had to make a choice"

Lee shook his head. "It wasn't a choice. If it was, I would have saved both of them. It was my mistake and I'm not going to make it again. No way." The teacher looked down for a moment, "I feel like it was partially my fault everyone died. "Doug, Carley, Mark, Ben, hell even Larry. Despite my disdain for him, I should've tried harder."

"I know where you're coming from." Clementine answered. "It's...my fault you got bit. If I had never..." Tears were prickling here eyes once more before she felt an embrace coming from the one she considered another father to her. "Listen," he said. "I told you before it wasn't your fault. I died yes, but I died protecting you so you could make it. I wish I was there and I couldn't imagine the pain you endured. But I'm here now and this time, we won't make the same mistakes, we'll work together. Alright? As far as anybody else knows, that life never existed, we're here now. Let's make the most of it.

Clementine let Lee's words sink in. His words always soothed her and her biggest regret ever was defying Lee for a man she didn't even know. All for what? Some false hope that her parents were alive. At this point, she hardly remembered them. Lee however, was so pivotal in her life, despite only being there for a short amount of time. He was her first true friend in life. She vowed to protect him at all costs.

"You okay?" The older man questioned her.

She nodded. "I'm better. Thank you. I, I needed that."

"No problem. I should check up on a few things though. Go talk to Katjaa, alright?"

Clementine nodded and made her way over to Katjaa while Lee walked over to Kenny. "Hey there Kenny."

The Floridian greeted the man, "Hey Lee."

He knew Kenny wouldn't need it, but still asked anyway. "Need any help?"

"Nah, I think I got it. But do _you_ need help?"

He had to go along with it. "Well, what do you mean?"

"What I mean is taking care of that little girl. I saw you talking to her over there and you seem to know how to comfort her well. But do you know what you're doing? You got kids of your own?"

Kenny was always trying to help, Lee respected that. "Would have liked kids. But I'm figuring it out, I don't think I have _any_ idea what I'm doing, but I'm just going along with it the best I can."

"At least you honest." He sighed. "Shit. Better than I was when Duck arrived. Like you said though, you're figuring it out. And from a parent, you seem to be doing alright so far."

Lee appreciated the words. "Thanks Kenny. I'll ask if I need anything. So what's your family's plan?"

"Like I said, we're from Fort Lauderdale, so our plan is to get back there and let this mess get sorted out. The government will start handing out shots and the national guard will do _its_ thing. On the odd chance things get too bad, we could hop in my boat I guess."

Everything said there couldn't be farther that what actually happened. They never attempted to go to Florida, the government was God knows where and the national guard didn't do anything. He knew Kenny's job so he asked. "So you're a commercial fisherman then?"

He nodded. "Very perceptive. Yeah, I just catch whatever bites and pays. I've brought up the idea with Katjaa and she isn't wild about it, but the boat ain't that bad."

Lee was about to bring up the next topic when Kenny asked a question of his own. "So where did you work at before all this shit went down?"

He was surprised since Kenny didn't ask that before, but decided to respond anyway. "I used to teach up at the University of Georgia in Athens. It was a fine job, nothing extraordinary. Big history guru though, I can tell you just about anything."

"Heh. I'll pass for now, but that's a fine job Lee. It definitely pays since you're the one not having to deal with student loan debt." He laughs a bit before he continues working on the truck once more.

"So how's your son doing?"

"He's good I think, Katjaa has a sister up in Memphis. We were coming back from visiting her, we were at a gas station before a guy grabbed my boy, I thought he was kidnapping him. I was on the fucker in about two seconds and...Christ, just lucky I was there. We stumbled upon a lot of bodies before finding Hershel's but...we're a tough family Lee, ain't nothing gonna faze us."

"Alright, I'll be back in a bit."

"Sure. And thanks Lee. You're a respectable man." He nods one last time before once again turning back to his truck.

He had already saw Hershel walk into the barn which means the walkers would appear very soon so he decided to go help out Shawn a bit. He walked past the girls and Duck who was most likely acting like Batman on a post, looking out for anything fishy.

He walked up to Shawn and offered his services and started cutting the boards. Like last time, Shawn explained the scenario he saw when a kid got shot right in the face and just muttered things like "Man." and "Damn." Lee explained to him that he had to bash some brains in after he got attacked, nothing too different.

Just as he got finished, Duck pointed to something with an alert. Shawn didn't hear him, but Lee did as a walker was slowly making his way up to the gate with its goal in mind to chew out Shawn's small intestine. Lee acted fast and pulled Shawn away from the fence as quickly as possible.

Shawn wondered why he did that, only to realize that a walker was almost right where he was, with the only thing blocking his path was a few pairs of wooden boards. Lee reached for his pistol, but realized that Hershel had asked him for his weapons last night. "Dammit!" He shouted.

Hershel ran out of the barn to see what the commotion was all about and saw that a small herd of walkers were trying to get through the fence. He took action fast and ran inside the house.

While that was happening, Lee had reached for one of the boards he found and whacked it over one of the walker's heads. It wasn't down for the count though and continued to reach for whomever wanted to be his breakfast.

Hershel then ran out with his and Lee's shotguns and threw his over to him. "I've reloaded it for ya. Kill these things!" He vocalized as he shot a walker through the chest. Of course, the effect was minimal at best as he continued to claw and reach for the humans.

Lee spoke out, "Only way to kill them is to destroy the brain!" He shouted as he blasted one of the walkers in the face. There was nothing left of his face now as it was blown to smithereens. Hershel nodded and shot where their weak point was. He found success and shot the last of the three walkers down.

The African-American took a deep breath and mumbled, "Man. Glad that's over." He looked over and saw Shawn standing there alive and well, just a little shook up. He breathed a sigh of relief. He had managed to save his first life since entering the past.

He walked over to the young man and asked, "You alright man? Those things almost ate you for breakfast."

Shawn was blinking his eyes very quickly before looking at Lee and giving him an answer. "Yeah. No bites luckily. You saved me, if you weren't there..." He got chills down his face as he shivered ever so slightly.

Hershel walked over to them and spoke. "You saved my son's life. How can I thank you?"

"Just make sure he stays alive. That's enough thanks for me." He smiled to the eldest man. That was his mission here, to save as many lives as possible.

"Let me get your weapons." He said as he went back into the house.

It was then, Kenny ran up to see what was going on. "What happened? Everyone okay?!"

Lee nodded. "Yeah, a close call, but we're alright. Nobody's hurt."

The Floridan man nodded and went over to his wife and embraced her, thanking God she was okay. He then turned to Duck and did the same thing. Lee decided to check on his sweet pea, who was standing behind everyone. "You alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, just wished I could have been more help." She seemed a bit distracted.

"Pulling Shawn away from the fence was all that really needed to happen. I handled it, just know that I'll need your help quite a bit later when the time comes." He knew Clementine wanted to help him, but it was true, as long as Shawn was away from that fence, he was safe.

"Okay."

Hershel then appeared with a box of something, along with the katana and sheath. He gestured for Lee, "Here Lee. As thank you for saving my son."

Lee obliged and grabbed the box to see quite a lot of food and ammo. His pistol and kit for the katana were also in there. This was quite a haul of valuable stuff for later. "You sure? He asked.

Hershel waved it off. "It's the least I can do. Don't know what would happen if I didn't have Shawn. Please, use this to help you?" It was more of a demand than a question. But Lee wasn't going to deny valuable food and ammunition.

He said his thanks and equipped his pistol and katana to his person before walking over to Kenny and his family. Kenny's face had a grin as he turned to his new friend, "You ready to hit the road?"

"Sure. You ready Clem?" He turned to the youngest in the group. "Yeah, I'm all ready." She answered.

After a few minutes of loading the box into the truck and the group saying goodbye to the Greenes, they took off in what would be the rest of their lives. Lee had managed to save Shawn today, but he had a few more to go. It was now a matter of dealing with the Drug Store and trying to save Doug AND Carley.

He remembered that last time, he threw a magazine over to Carley to reload her Glock pistol, but stayed just in case things didn't go smoothly. That turned out to be a mistake as Doug was dragged right through the window he was holding up and screamed in horror as his intestines were pulled out. He would have to prevent this.

They still had a few more hours until they reached Macon, so Lee decided to get some shut-eye. He knew he would need it for the night ahead.

 **I can't make a short chapter to save my life. I don't how people do it. Word count above turned out to be about 4,850, plus however many words in this Author's note. Anyway, I'm still in the beginning of the story, and I feel like this is one of my weak points. It's difficult to get it off the ground. I didn't want to make it EXACTLY like what happened in the games, but try to keep it canon as much as possible. Lee and Clementine haven't gotten that far in this new timeline yet, so the consequences of their choices are minimal at the moment. Trust me though, certain actions Lee and Clem take might just affect who lives and dies and _where_ they die. I'm not saying anymore. You'll just have to wait. **

**-MidnightJD**


	4. This Ain't Exactly Fort Knox

Lee felt good and rested by the time he had awoken. It was currently 16:42, according to the time on his watch, which meant they would be arriving at the drug store within an hour if his memory served him correctly. He knew that there was a lot riding on these next couple of hours, so he took the time to replay what happened in the previous timeline.

The key major points were getting the keys to the pharmacy, the argument, rescuing Glenn, and the raid courtesy of the walkers. Lee figured he could probably prevent two of these, but the other two were inevitable one way or another. There was also the case of the Motor Inn and what he would have to do if they wanted to last longer than they did there.

The African-American just rubbed his temple as he stared out the window. He knew the entirety of Macon like the back of his hand and knew they were currently traveling down the 75 freeway, the same freeway he took whenever he went to Macon. They were on the right-hand lane, traveling past hundreds, if not thousands of vehicles that were all at a stand-still. They were lucky people were still obeying the law and kept the right-hand lane open.

It was about another ten minute drive to the drug store when Lee had noticed an old motel that was very familiar to him. It had a bright yellow sign in the shape of an arrow pointing in the direction of the motel and it had the words "Travelier Motel," etched on both sides. A lot of history was involved with this place and Lee should know, he was a history teacher after all. The first memory he had of this place was saving Glenn who hid himself in the ice machine, followed by the lady up in the room who was bitten and desired suicide. He wondered if giving the gun to her would have been the better option now that he looked back on it, but he didn't know what anything was at that point in time.

He spoke up, "Hey Kenny. I think we should stop by this motel, see if we could find any survivors, or at least some fuel." He followed by pointing to the upcoming sign.

The Floridian man nodded, "Good idea. We're running low on diesel anyway. We're making a pitstop." He turned and voiced to his family and Clementine.

Lee had a plan for all of this. It didn't look too bad right now at the motel and this would prevent Glenn from going on his own to get gas. Kenny pulled his blue pickup into the parking lot and parked it in one of the parking spaces close to the exit ramp. All five members occupying the truck got out and took a look around. He saw a number of vehicles here and knew that no one was around anymore to collect them, so that made them ripe for the pickings. Still though, it wouldn't hurt to check if anyone else is around here, preferably the one girl who fought him for the gun.

"I'm gonna go around and see if there are any survivors." He called out to Kenny. "Doubtful after this much time, but you never know."

"Sounds good." He replied.

Lee then turned to his sweet pea, "Want to come with me?" He offered.

Clementine grinned and nodded towards the man. They than began walking towards the first door.

Lee wanted to make conversation so he asked, "How ya doin Clementine?" As he put a hand on her shoulder.

"I still can't believe this is real." Her young voice speaking out. "I still can't believe you're alive. I always blamed myself for what happened to you."

"Oh honey. You shouldn't have. I never blamed you. Never once and I would never blame you. Understand?" He stopped and crouched down to her level.

She looked into his eyes and saw no malice or hate towards her, only love, like he had always shown. "Okay."

"Good. Good. Now let's check this room."

So they went around checking the dozen or so rooms on the first floor. The only thing they had managed to find was three walkers (luckily in all separate rooms), a couple rounds of ammo and the fire axe that Lee used quite frequently in the past-future. He knew he had his katana and it would come in handy (it already has if you count the three walkers he just killed), but it wasn't very durable and probably wouldn't be able to break anything. The axe on the other hand, absolutely would. All they had now was the upstairs.

He remembered the girl was at the far end, so he quickly checked the two rooms before it, which had absolutely nothing before knocking on the final door. He called out, "Hello in there, we're here to help!"

"You have to help us! Please!" Was all he heard before the door opened to reveal the same girl who took her own life on the very ground below them. He took a quick glance at her torso and noticed no bite mark visible. This was another part of his plan, to make sure this girl didn't commit suicide.

"Are you military? Have they cleared things up yet?!" She said in a frightened manner. Her eyes were quickly darting around and she looked frantic and a bit paranoid.

Lee used his hands to ease her. "Calm down. We're not military and we're not here to hurt you. We just wanted to see if anybody could've used some help." He gestured to Clementine when he said 'We.'

"Oh." Her shoulders and head dropped for a moment before looking back up. "Are you a doctor by any chance. My boyfriend is bitten in there. He's running a fever, he's very sick and I don't know if he's gonna make it."

Lee feigned surprise, "You said he was bitten? Oh boy, that means there isn't much time for him left. When a walker bites you, unless that limb is taken off immediately, you're gonna turn into one of them. The only to make sure he doesn't come back as one of those things, is if you destroy the brain. I'm sorry to break this to you."

Her eyes widened when she was told she'd have to destroy the brain to make sure he doesn't come back. "No. No, no, no, no, no. This can't be happening." She began breathing very quickly and began sweating and Lee could tell she was starting to hyperventilate.

He acted quick and put his hands on her shoulders. "Miss. Calm down. I know it's hard, but you have to stay calm."

"Listen to what he says. He knows what he's talking about." Lee heard Clementine speak and felt grateful for her.

It took another few seconds, but she began to calm down and take some deep breaths. "I'm sorry." She said. "Watching what those things can do, it's hell. Becoming one of those things is hell and I can't become one, I can't! It's not Christian." She paused as she looked at the older man, "If what you said is true, that means my boyfriend is gonna turn. I know this is a lot to ask, but...can you p-p-put him out of his misery? I couldn't do it."

Lee fully understood where she was coming from, "I understand. And I'll do it. Don't worry miss?"

"Irene." She answered.

"Name's Lee. This is Clementine."

Clementine waved and said hi to the woman. If he wasn't looking directly at Irene's face, he wouldn't have noticed the small smile that just appeared when Clem waved to her.

"Can I say goodbye to him?" Irene asked.

"Of course."

Irene then walked back into her motel room. She crouched down and whispered something into her boyfriend's ear before standing back up and walking back to Lee. She nodded, which gave Lee his cue to walk in and survey the damage.

Lee noticed that Irene's boyfriend was bit in the same exact area she had been bit when he first met her. On the right-side of the stomach. He sighed before pulling out his M1911 and pointed it at the man on the bed. He had put down people beforehand who were bitten, but it was never easy and he just learned that it wasn't going to get any easier. So he closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger.

A quick kill, but certainly not clean. It never was. He sighed as he saw blood starting to stain the sheets. It wasn't the normal color blood usually is, with black gunk mixing with the red blood cells.

"What's going on in there?" Lee heard Kenny call from outside the door. He ran in to see what happened and saw the aftermath. "Fuck." He cursed out.

Lee answered him. "This woman right here asked me to put him down. He was bitten. Just letting you know, when you die, the only way to prevent someone from becoming a walker is to destroy the brain. A walker bite guarantees you die if you don't cut off the limb immediately. This guy got bit in the stomach unfortunately."

Kenny's eyes widened at the new information. "Jesus. How can the world turn to hell so fast?" His head dropped a bit.

"Tell me about it." Lee voiced his opinion.

Nothing else was said as Lee gave Ryan a proper burial out in the forest. He found out her boyfriend was named Ryan. It was reminiscent of the time he buried that boy back at the mansion down in Savannah.

Irene and Clementine watched the whole thing with mixed feelings. Clementine felt said that this had to be done, but remembered all the other times she had to put someone down. It made it slightly less painful to watch, but it still touched a soft spot for her.

Irene on the other hand, looked like she was ready to breakdown. Though she felt eternally grateful for Lee. Someone she had just met did more for her than almost all of her friends and even some of her family. It was a terrible situation and she knew she wouldn't be able to do something like this for the one she loved, that's why she was grateful that Lee showed up when he did. Being one of those things terrified her and she couldn't witness someone so close to her, experience that fate.

After finishing the burial, Lee and the girls headed back to the motel to see what progress had been made.

Lee walked up to Kenny and asked, "Hey Ken. How much fuel did we scavenge?"

Kenny had a satisfied look on his face as he spoke, "Quite a lot actually. A couple tanks worth thanks to that RV over there." He finished as he pointed to the RV over at the end of the motel.

"Hey uh...do you mind if we stop somewhere in town?" Lee asked.

"Not at all. But where?"

Lee's shoulders dropped as he explained. "My family is somewhere in there. They have a drug store in town and I just wanted to check to see if they were alive...or not."

"If they're alive, we have to find them. Family is all too important. Just point us where we're heading Lee."

"Thanks." He finished with a grateful smile. He knew his family were dead by this point, but he needed to rally with his old group. And by God, he missed Carley.

He then turned to Irene and offered, "Want to come with us? There's no way you'll be able to survive out on your own. I think a group would do a lot of good for you."

She pondered for a moment, but gave in. "Yeah. I don't have anyone left now..." She paused as she thought about something for a moment. "But that doesn't mean I have to go out with them. I...I want to live on for my loved ones."

"Good Irene. Good." Lee complimented. "Well let's get going. I don't think we should stick around for too much longer."

Since there was a 6th person, Lee offered to ride in the bed of the truck. Clementine, of course wanted to sit with him in the back and enjoy some fresh air. The breeze was nice going down Peach Tree road. Lee would occasionally point out directions of where they needed to turn with Kenny obliging. On the way to the store, they had noticed a few walkers here and there, but all of them weren't even on the road.

Making one last turn, Lee noticed his parent's drugstore with the words "Everett Pharmacy Drugstore" etched on the side of the building. He knocked on the back window to let them know they were nearby. Kenny nodded and pulled his truck over to the side of the road, closer to the drug store this time.

The six of them got out of the truck and began looking around. Lee began walking towards his parents drug store and saw his brother once more. This brought back a flash of various memories him and his brother once shared. From celebrating birthday parties, to doing something stupid in the woods surrounding Macon.

While he was distracted, he heard, "Hey there! You friendly?! Could use some help!"

 _'Oh no. Kenny you idiot!'_ Were Lee's thoughts before the same sequence of events began playing out just like last time. He quickly took out his katana and with a heavy heart, ended his brother's misery and quickly grabbed the keys to the pharmacy.

"We're trapped!" Katjaa voiced her concerns. Right after that a walker that came seemingly out of nowhere tripped Duck down to the ground and was about to take a bite of him before a loud BANG came from behind the group.

Lee turned and saw an old face that he missed during his final days, Carley. She had her Glock pistol out just like last time, shooting the various walkers that we're slowly stamping their way over to the group. Another Korean man was also out there, a face Lee only vaguely remembered since didn't have too much interaction with him, Glenn. "RUN!" He shouted out.

The six of them began booking it to the inside of the drugstore, with Carley taking a few more potshots at the walkers before running inside herself. Glenn shut the gate behind them, before putting a padlock onto its hinges to make sure they couldn't get in. The walkers sure didn't appreciate that though as they banged along the gate in hopes of collecting their next meal.

Inside of the drug store, everyone who was outside was catching their breath after that whole fiasco before a woman in a brown tank-top spoke up, "We can't take risks like this."

"And we can't just let people die either." Shouted the same woman who protecting them from irreversible harm.

The former retaliated, "When I say that door stays shut no matter what, I fucking MEAN it! We don't know who these people are! They could be dangerous." She whispered that last part to Carley.

Lee didn't want this to happen, he was hoping to avoid it, but a mistake on his part had caused all of this to flare up once more. He needed to make peacekeeper quick. "Do you really think we're dangerous if we have kids with us?"

That's when the big guy with a big nose piped in, "I see ONE little girl."

That was when Irene decided to join in, "They saved me! Lee here did me a great service. He put down my boyfriend when he was bit so he wouldn't turn into one of those things! It's hell." She hung her head low once again.

"Irene is right. Lee helped her in a dark time. You call that dangerous old man?" Kenny was about ready to get in the face of whoever these big man was.

The old man glared at Kenny before something in the corner of his eye got his attention, "Holy Shit. Son of a bitch, one of them is _Bitten_!"

Lee shook his head, "No. He wasn't bitten."

"Hell he wasn't." He pointed a finger at Lee for emphasis. "We have to end this now." He started walking over to Duck and Katjaa.

Kenny was quicker and guarded them and getting in the face of the larger man, "Over my dead body."

"We'll dig one hole."

Katjaa raised her voice a bit, "NO! I'm cleaning him up there's no bite, he's fine!"

"Don't you fucking people get it!? We've already seen this happen! We let someone with a bite stay and-and we all end up bitten!"

"SHUT UP!"

Lee was getting sick of this, so he stood up for what he thought was right. "Look here old man! I'm all for trying to protect the group, but we aren't throwing anybody out, even if he IS bitten! And if you got a problem with that, then I have no problem kicking your ass! I have no doubt in my mind I'll have some back-up to help along!"

"That's what I'm thinking! Lay on a finger on my boy and we'll kick your ass all the way to the depths of hell!"

The old-timer seemed amused by that, "You're gonna whoop me? Ha, that's good. Little boy, before you _Eat_ you mommy, you can watch your dad and his little homo-parade get their noses broken."

Carley tried to ease things up, "EVERYONE CHILL THE FUCK OUT!"

It didn't seem to work though, "Nobody is doing anything."

The old man turned to her, "Shut up Lilly!" He then turned to Carley, "And _you_ , shut the fuck up. They will find us and they will get in here and none of this will fucking matter. But right now, we're about to be trapped in here with one of those things!"

Lee spoke up once again before anybody else could, "You turn when you get bit, we get it. But until a bite is visible, you have no power over what happens to that boy! This isn't your daughter here so don't act like you're the one who's in control!"

"Ha. Never would've happen to Lilly." He brushed off that comment real quick.

"It could happen to anybody. You think she's immune to whatever the hell this is?! Don't think so. So here's what's gonna happen, you're gonna sit down, you're gonna relax and you're gonna regret putting that boy in danger when you see he isn't bitten."

Lee KNEW Duck wasn't bitten, that's why he went so far to protect him. Him and Kenny had always been on good friends and when he saw how far Kenny would go to protect Clementine back in Wellington, he was going to stick by his side.

"Look, look! See, he's clean, not a scratch!" He heard Katjaa say with a heavy sigh of relief.

"Not a scratch huh? What do you think of that old man?" Kenny questioned the bigger man.

"It's Larry. And I'm sorry." The hostile tone was gone, but it certainly wasn't remorseful.

Lee stepped in once again. "Okay. That's done. Nobody needs to be at each other's throats anymore. And Larry..." He turned to the bigger man once again. "I'm sorry as well. Maybe I took it too far, but all life is precious. Until evidence was shown, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Can we all just start over?"

There was a reason for him apologizing to him. Lee didn't want Larry hating him as much as he did last time. He did try to save his life back in the meat locker after all, but he didn't agree with him on anything prior.

"I...ugh. Whatever." He turned and walked away to a corner near the pharmacy, with Lilly in tow. Looks like he didn't want anything to do with him right now.

Lee didn't want to be as much of an asshole as he was last time to Larry. He was selfish, rude, cursed people out for no reason, tried to send kids to their death...okay maybe Larry didn't have too many redeeming factors, but Lee was willing to see past all of that and find the good in him. He remembered his conversation with Lilly back at the dairy and kept in mind that he's just in a tough place, that the only thing he has left is Lilly. He still regrets leaving Lilly on the side of the road, but even _his_ head wasn't on his shoulders at that time.

"Everyone else should get comfy and find anything useful, we could be in here a while." He heard Kenny voice to the group.

Glenn spoke up for only the second time that day, "I'm starting to think this drug store isn't a permanent solution."

Kenny replied back, "You're right, this ain't exactly Fort Knox."

Lee already knew what he had in mind, but still asked, "What do you have in mind?"

Glenn replied, "We need as much gas as possible so we can all get out of downtown Macon. Fast."

"We actually already got some gas from an old motel about 10 minutes from here. Travelier Motel or something like that." Lee responded.

The Korean seemed surprised, "You already checked there? That was what I was going to suggest, but if you picked it clean already, great."

"That's where they found me actually." Irene piped in.

More formalities were introduced between everybody and they all knew their names now. Lee's plan was working so far and he had managed to prevent Glenn from getting himself in some trouble, and the hassle of getting the keys to the pharmacy. He knew he couldn't prevent the argument with the given circumstances, but he was more ready for it this time around and handled it as rationally as he could with Larry.

Now he had two things that needed to get done, the walker in the bathroom and getting the pharmacy open. So he asked, "Did you guys check the bathroom by any chance?"

Lilly shook her head, "No, it's locked and we couldn't find the keys."

Lee internally rolled his eyes as he walked behind the counter and pretended to start looking for them. He gave it a good ten seconds or so before letting people know that he found them. He walked over to the locked door and knocked a few times to alert the walker.

He alerted the group. "Looks like there's one in there. I'll handle it." To prevent noise, he grabbed the katana off the sheath on his back and readied himself. He turned the knob and kicked the door open. A second later, an unidentified walker slowly trekked out of the bathroom before finding a giant blade stuck in its mouth, running up to its brain.

With clean precision, the walker was vanquished. "It's good to check rooms like these. Poor bastard probably went in here so no one would get hurt." He finished as he cleaned the blood off his katana before sheathing it once more.

"Nice kill." Kenny commented.

Lee nodded in thanks before announcing, "It's safe now by the way."

Larry wasn't hunched down in pain, the walkers couldn't get through the front door and everybody is alive so far. It seems things will work out the way Lee hopes.

 **Quick post-note here. So how are you guys liking the series so far? I shifted around the dialogue a bit, while also keeping true to what happened because again, the paradox effect isn't too heavy right now. And let me know about the scene with Irene (hehe, that rhymed), I got a few ideas for her. Was it too long, not enough? How should it have been changed up if you were writing it? I love seeing that stuff. Rate it, review it, favorite it, follow it, read it. DO IT ALL!**

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 **-MidnightJD**

 **9/16/18 Edit: Various Grammar Errors**


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